cooperation

Question 1

easter island

Answer 1

Colonized by indigenous people, collapsed due to ecological catastrophization
Couldn’t keep up balance with ecology, over exploitation of their own environment

Question 2

Signs of cooperative instincts appear early on

Answer 2

Synchrony in yawning in babies

Question 3

Experiments with altruism (spontaneous helping) in children and chimps

Answer 3

Adults keep failing to put books in shelf, toddler comes and opens the door to help the adult

When a task involves two people, the toddler grabs the adult to help him

Chimps also help adults but behaviors are more mixed

Question 4

Bred in the bone(yale study)
(object helper/hinderer)

Answer 4

Child chooses the helper(the object that helps the other shape go up the hill), rather than the hinderer who pushes the object down the hill

Child also chooses the puppet that passes the ball back to the puppet who lost it

Question 5

Empathy and compassion rooted in mammalian parental care instincts

Answer 5

We humans are cooperative breeders”it takes a village to raise a child”

Question 6

The “grandmother hypothesis”

Answer 6

Grandmothers invest a lot of caretaking of their grandchildren(perform motherly duties)

Question 7

Kin selection

Answer 7

the tendency for genetic relatives to help each other because natural selection favors behaviors that increase the chance of survival of genetic relatives

Question 8

Hamilton’s rule:
(kin selection)

Answer 8

rxB>C
r=genetic relatedness; B=benefit; C=cost

Question 9

Reciprocal altruism-

Answer 9

the tendency for strangers with good reputations to help each other as natural selection favors mutually beneficial behaviors as long as helping is reciprocated in some future time

Question 10

The problem of free riding

Answer 10

A failure of cooperation in which individuals who receive benefits from other individuals or common resources do not contribute to it

Question 11

examples of free riding

Answer 11

Tax evasion
Fair skipping in public transpo
Overfishing

Question 12

Prisoners dilemma

Question 13

Tit-for tat

Answer 13

one prisoner begins with cooperation, electing to not confess, and the other follows suit

Question 14

Common resource pool dilemmas

Answer 14

In a shared limited resource system, individuals acting according to self interest, deplete the shared resource and undermine the “common good”

Question 15

“The tragedy of the commons”

Answer 15

Tax evasion
Water conservation
Preservation of forests

Question 16

The mother of all problems:

Answer 16

climate change

Question 17

Possible ways to manage the commons dilemma

Answer 17

No all-size fits all solution; adapt to local conditions
Understanding that resource can be depleted
Community with thick social networks and strong social norms in favor of responsible use
Institutions that monitor resource use
Graduated sanctions for overuse
Mechanisms of conflict resolution that are easy to access

Question 18

Large scale cooperation

Answer 18

any cooperation among individuals, where individuals are strangers to each other, degree of limitation

Question 19

Reciprocal altruism (reputation-driven)-> limited cooperation(does not explain cooperation in large groups)

Question 20

Kin selection->cooperation among kin (does not explain cooperation in large groups)

Question 21

Cooperative norms(the golden rule)

Answer 21

The golden rule exists across cultures and religions

treat others the way you want to be treated

Question 22

Supernatural policing

Answer 22

even if you’re in an anonymous situation, the gods are watching

Question 23

Some ways how culture has solved problem of large scale cooperation

Answer 23

some monitoring institutions

policing

markets and trading

indirect reciprocity

cooperative cultural norms

expansion of the moral circle through emotions such as empathy,compassion,guilt,shame

supernatural monitoring

Question 24

Karma and god: supernatural framing experiment

Does thinking of god while playing the dictator game make people more generous

Answer 24

When asked to think of god and karma there was more of an increase of money shared with another participant’

Very similar results among christians, hindus, and buddhists

Initially selfish offers switching to fairness

Supernatural framing did not make fair offers hyperfair

No effect found for non-believers

Question 25

Follow up study: does this behavior relate to religious outgroups?

If you are christian, would you be more generous with a hindu or muslim?

Answer 25

Thinking about god increased giving by 11% equally to religious ingroups and outgroups

Question 26

How did cooperation expand

Answer 26

Political institutions, cultural norms, extended emotions( empathy/compassion), shared rituals, moralizing gods and forces, trading and markets

Question 27

Moral expansiveness scale(Peter singer)

Answer 27

Responsibility of humans to expand our moral scale

As time goes on we include more to our moral scale such as animals, environment, outgroups( they deserve as much respect as family/friends)

Question 28

Two prevailing models of moral reasoning “The impartial judge”

Answer 28

Outcome based (utilitarianism):

Principle based (kantian):

Question 29

Outcome based (utilitarianism)

Answer 29

what outcome benefits most people at the least cost?(eg. Save as many lives as possible for the least harm)

Question 30

Principle based (kantian)

Answer 30

is this consistent with a given principle? (eg:do no harm, golden rule)

Question 31

Social institutionist model of moral judgment:

Answer 31

The idea that people have fast, emotional reactions to morally relevant events and then may or may not recruit reasoning to arrive at a judgment of right or wrong.

These moral reactions are rooted in social identity, group norms, and social emotions

Question 32

The elephant and the rider

Answer 32

elephant(emotions)

rider(reasoning and judgement)

Question 33

If you want change to happen

Answer 33

Give direction to the rider, motivate the elephant (tapping into emotion), shape the path for easy progress

Question 34

Moral Foundations theory

Answer 34

Proposes that there are 5 evolved moral domains in which specific emotions guide moral judgements

Question 35

Moral domains:

Answer 35

care/harm(individuating)

fairness/cheating(individuating)

loyalty/betrayal(binding)

authority/subversion(binding)

purity/degradation(binding)

Question 36

Moral foundations and politcal leanings

Answer 36

The more liberal people are the less they care about binding foundations (loyalty, authority, purity), they care more about harm and fairness(individuating)

Conservative care about all moral domains

Question 37

instrumental values

Answer 37

cost benefit calculus

outcome focused

temporally distanced (time,context)

dose sensitive

identitiy irrelvant

rational actor

Question 38

sacred values

Answer 38

moral emotions

principle focused,outcome irrelevant

universalist(wrong no matter what)

dose insensitive(slavery is wrong no matter how many enslaved)

identity relevant

devoted actor